FUTURE SETTLERS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3254, 19 April 1943, Page 7

FUTURE SETTLERS

POLICY OF EXPANSION POST-WAR IMMIGRANTS INTEREST IN MIDDLE EAST Writing from Calcutta recently, Sir Clutlia Mackenzie, the wellknown New Zealander, has the following interesting facts to tell regarding postwar settlement in this country.

‘‘ So many men in India and the Middle East had asked me about pros poets of post-war settlement in New Zealand that in November, 1942, I sent a. short article on the subject io several Indian newspapers with the object of discovering the real depth of this interest and the quality of the potential settlers. f advised against the immediate settlement on the land of inexperienced men from overseas and that, instead, they should bo prepared to work as farm hands for several years before they bought property for themselves. I said, also, that if New Zealand would undertake a policy of general expansion, there would, be room for men and women of almost all types of occupation. If the response was sufficient, I would represent the position to the New Zealand 'Government and would also advocate the formation of a New Zealand Settlement Society, the function of which would be to welcome the new* arrivals, give them frank advice, and assist them in every way to find a happy niche in their adopted land. Prospects Reply “The article brought me a mail of more than 500 letters. Their writers fall roughly into three groups. The first covers keen young fellows between 19 an 25 years captains, pilot officers; squadron leaders, petty officers, young naval lieutenants, bombardiers, sergeants, corporals, aircraftsmen, gunners, and so on —anxious to make their homes in a new young country after the war.. Some are married, and

most intend to get married after the Avar is over. Through scores of letters run sentences of this kind: ‘What to do after the war has given me a lot of worry. Your article is Heavensent. It is the answer/ Unfortunately my article is but a tentative proposal. I wish it were within my power to reap for New Zealand this magnificent crop of British youth and vigour; but I am in hopes something will come of it.

“ The second group, includes men between 25 and 45, highly qualified in the professions, business mating raont, public administration and holding responsible jobs of one kind and another. Some have capital, some have assured income—all have proven abil ity and wide experience. Most are married men with children. Their motives in thinking of New Zealand are to make a home in a pleasant British country and to bring u-p their children as New Zealandres. Many say homuch they have liked the New Zealanders whom they have met on waservice. A number have been in posts

in China, Malaya, Burma and India, and feel that their jobs will no longer be open or pleasant for them after the ivar. These men will need employment in the Dominion to enable them to live and bring up their families.

“The third group is an especially easy one from our point of view men in the forties- and fifties, who have ample capital and/or assured income, who w'ish merely to make a pleasant home in a warm district, handy to fishirtg, yachting and golf, and to live in retirement. For the

most part they wish to own from two to 10 acres or so, to have the interest of growing their own vegetables, fruit, poultry and, perhaps, dairy needs. Their contribution to the Dominion will be children of the best type, purchasers of local products without themselves being competitors in the labour market, tax snd ratepayers and fine men in every way, men who have held high posts and kept the British flag flying in far and dangerous places. Among my correspondents in this class are generals, colonels, majors, I.C.S. men, forestry officers, business and professional men. They have capital of from £.3000 to £20,000, aAd incomes of from £4OO to £2OOO.

“I am afraid that many of us in New Zealand are uneducated as to the enormous value —-this gift from the gods —which , the adding of men of these three groups to our population means. If. is only at the end of a war that we can get them. We failed to take them in 1919 and 1920. During my travels in the United States in 1941 and 1942 I met many thousands of them, working hard for the British war effort, but lost to the Empire and. to our , Dominions, which needed them so badly.

“We are all apt to look upon the newcomer from the -selfish angle of our own particular occupation. 'The plumber feels that, if 100 plumbers arrive from Britain, the security of his job may be threatened; but those 100 plumbers will not come unaccompanied. They will come with hundreds and thousands of other tradesmen —all of whom will need houses, furniture, food, clothing, gas, coal, electricity, transport and so on, creating as much work as they themselves can give. If we lift our population by 400,000 to 2,000,000, there will be room for approximately 25 pe cent more men in every type of existing employment. ’ ’